Right blogs: Filibuster 'bully' Reid

The conservative blogosphere is leveling charges of “bullying” at Sen. Harry Reid after the majority leader proposed filibuster reform.

“Remember the really nasty bully on the school playground?” read a post at RedState.com. “The guy who would use force and intimidation to beat up the other kids? And on that rare occasion when he was actually losing, he’d just change the rules. By brute force. Because he could… a slimier, more vicious, infinitely more dangerous bully has now emerged on the national scene. And his name is Harry Reid. He’s the guy who’s trying to change the Senate rules. Illegally and unconstitutionally. By brute force. Because he can.”

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Reid (D-Nev.) has said the filibuster process must be changed because the rule has been “abused, abused, abused.” Possible changes to the procedure include forbidding filibusters that keep debates from getting underway and House-Senate conference committee meetings from occurring, or instituting the old-school filibuster process that requires lawmakers to make lengthy speeches to prevent moving forward.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has slammed that tactic as a “naked power grab,” and some conservative bloggers turned to language in keeping with that message.

“Harry Reid is an obtuse and tyrannical majority leader, whose strong-arm tactics have compelled Republicans to threaten or launch a record number of filibusters,” summarized Townhall.com’s Guy Benson. “Now that Reid is positioning his caucus to blow up long-standing filibuster rules and taking direct aim at the minority’s ability to influence the agenda, the political temperature is rising, and Republicans are ratcheting up retaliatory threats.”

But some right-leaning writers saw an opportunity.

In a post on the Heritage Foundation’s blog, Brian Darling offered some suggestions regarding “how to make Harry Reid’s power grab work for conservatives.”

“What Reid is trying to do is wrong, yet the only way for conservatives to fight back is to engage the fight,” Darling said. “If Reid is going to push the theory that until the Senate operates under the rules, there are no rules, then he has provided an unprecedented opportunity for conservatives to push some real Senate rules reform ideas. If there are no rules, then Reid can’t stop conservatives from offering a never-ending stream of rules change ideas for the Senate to cast votes on.”